Evan Preston
Personality Stuff and talky things. Sheet Freebie Spending Initial Freebie spend is about 35, at the Practiced level. *Flaws: -7 *Merits: +7 *Arete: +8 *Academics: +4 *Expression: +4 *Integrity: +4 *Sanctum: +1 *Contacts: +2 *Mentor: +5 *Spheres: +7 (All spheres at 1 for awakening. Prime goes up with each Seeking to 3. Spirit is bought once.) Expertises & Specialties Talents: Skills: *Meditation: This is a state of prayer and worship. Functionally, it is identical to meditation. Knowledges: *Academics: Math and Theology. *Culture: Religion, and how it affects culture. *Linguistics: English (native), Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and German. *Rituals: High and Low Mass. See House Rules for rules on Specialties and Expertises. Merits & Flaws Merits: *Eidetic Memory: *Fast Learner: *Prodigy: Flaws: *Lifesaver: *Rotten Liar: *Strageness: Backgrounds *Avatar: Evan's avatar appears as an angel named Abdiel, who certainly acts as though the events portrayed in Paradise Lost actually happened. *Contacts: Dr. Napier, head of the math department at UCCS; and a local priest who is politically active *Mentor: *Resources: Dr. Preston has just started on a tenure-track position in the UCCS math department. As an ordained minister, he also has a bit of income from performing religious ceremonies. *Sanctum: A library/office/den in his home in (insert neighborhood here). History Early Childhood Evan was born in San Francisco to Roland and Jaquelyn Preston. Roland was (and is) a professor of Law at UC Berkley, and Jaquelyn was a professor of Political Science there. Because of that, and because he is an only child, in many ways he had a privileged childhood: lots of books, early adoption of computers and the internet. They expected him to be curious and bright, and gave him every opportunity to be so. By three, he was reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica (at least sounding the words out, not necessarily understanding them). By five, starting to use puns for humor (in self-defense from his father). He grew up with deans and political figures stopping by for dinner, and learning how to comport himself in formal situations. And all the time, his parents presented the world as a place that humans made it; that there was nothing beyond humanity, no ultimate authority, and that he should question any authority--even theirs. Their ultimate mistake, if you could call it a mistake, was giving him a King James Bible on his sixth birthday and telling him it would be the greatest fairy tale he ever read. And read it he did, learning older grammar, syntax, and meanings of words as he did so. Nothing happened for a while...just the usual growing up in private school, meeting academic challenges, going in an occasional school play, things like that. He made some grade school friends, but did not put down roots with them much. There were interesting debates with his parents, though: 'You don't think that God exists. Why not?' 'Because he doesn't do anything. Even if he does exist, he doesn't act like it.' 'How do you know this?' Things like that. Finally, one night, he put it to the test: 'God, if you're real, please tell me.' There was an answer. It was not in the power of a raging fire, nor in a blowing windstorm, the flash of lightning, the rolling thunder, or the quaking earth. The answer was in a soft stillness, and all it was, was 'I AM HERE.' More than that, it was the sense of power behind that voice...the power to define reality, not just describe it. He recoiled from it, but had to accept it...and between his soul and the voice something interposed: an Avatar in the shape of an angel named Abdiel. Awakening and College Seekings and Doctorates Etc Paradigm Evan's paradigm is that of a much older version of consensual reality: The real world exists and is rational, able to be comprehended by science, but the supernatural exists as well, which is beyond the scope of science. Magic, sorcery, and miracles are all real, as are supernatural creatures. His own magic fits into the mental pigeonhole of miracles, a la Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Peter, Paul, and others. This paradigm (magician/miracle-worker) would have been held as valid certainly up to and within medieval times, but Consensus started to move away during the Renaissance, and turned hostile during the Age of Enlightenment. Even Romanticism offers only bare glimmers of possible consensus, while Post-Modernism's consensus is that no consensus is possible, and reality itself is completely subjective. He hopes to slowly expand the paradigm by getting his students and parishioners to both accept the possibility of the supernatural and miracles. Category:Character Archive